Problem creating Windows 7 x64 guest on Centos 7 host

[geppetto]

I am going to apologize up front for whatever it was I missed. It has been a while since I created VMs with VirtualBox. That said... I have a fresh Centos 7 install and am trying to create a Windows 7 x64 guest. I create the VM, 75 GB disk (not dynamic), Win 7 ISO in the DVD drive (pass through), bridged network interface, etc. When I start the VM the DVD drive spins up and runs for a bit (couple of minutes?), and then spins down. The process seems to hang. TOP still shows an active VirtualBox process and it is using the CPU.

The Win 7 ISO was installed on the disk drive, so that tells me it is good. Shortly after installing Win 7, I decided to go in a different direction and installed Centos 7. The initial VirtualBox install was version 5.1. After experiencing a few 'hangs' trying to create the Win 7 VM with different options, I created a VM using a Centos 7 ISO. While I didn't let the Centos 7 VM build completely, I saw enough to make me think VirtualBox is working correctly. Later, I uninstalled VirtualBox 5.1 and went back to 5.0, but have not been successful creating the Win 7 VM. The extpack was applied to both VirtualBox versions. dkms and development tools have been installed. VirtualBox was installed with 'yum install VirtualBox-5.0' (and 5.1).

The hardware is a Toshiba laptop with a dual core AMD chip (1800MHz?). Previously, I have created multiple VirtualBox VMs on the machine when it was running VIsta.

Attached is a log of the latest attempt from the 5.0 install and a log a the 5.1 attempt. I copied the contents of the 5.1 log prior to killing the VM. I did let the first attempt run for a couple of hours before I killed the VM.

All thoughts and comments are appreciated. Even if I am being impatient waiting for the Win 7 to load.

Thank you.

VBox.log

VB 5.0 log

(84.63 KiB) Downloaded 10 times

5-1vbox.log

VB 5.1 Partial Log

(54.47 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

[socratis]

For future reference you should ZIP your logs. It helps save a (virtual) tree or two...

00:00:01.249900 File system of '/home/nelson/VirtualBox VMs/Win7/NewVirtualDisk1.vdi' is xfs

Two things here. Why isn't the name of the VDI the default "Win7.vdi"? Did you intervene manually to change the settings/defaults? Why? And second: XFS? How come? I don't think I've seen it used in any of the threads around here and I was curious about your selection.

00:00:01.038736 Host RAM: 3664MB (3.5GB) total, 1491MB available
00:00:01.344305 RamSize  <integer> = 0x0000000070800000 (1 887 436 800, 1 800 MB)
00:00:01.345176 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000004000000 (67 108 864, 64 MB)

You are assigning memory to your guest, that you do not have available. Either close some applications on the host, buy more RAM for the host, or reduce the amount of RAM assigned to the guest.

00:00:01.344294 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000002 (2)
00:00:01.742974 CPUM: Logical host processors: 2 present, 2 max, 2 online, online mask: 0000000000000003
00:00:01.743071 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
00:00:01.743656 Full Name: "AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60"

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources. Your CPU doesn't even have hyperthreading, so 1 CPU is the max you should ever assign to any guest.

Win 7 ISO in the DVD drive (pass through)

You've got to be careful with the terminology. You do NOT have an ISO in the DVD. An ISO is a file that implements a virtual filesystem of a CD. A Win7 DVD is a physical medium. What I would suggest (which will save you a lot of time in the long run) is to create an ISO from your Win7 DVD. There are a lot of programs out there for that, but take a look at WinCDEmu or ISODisk. (nevermond that, you're on CentOS )

[geppetto]

Thank you very much for your reply and suggestions. I have been making changes based on your reply and trying additional testing, even moving to another machine. I'm currently on a different laptop (HP dv2415nr), similar dual core AMD ~1800 MHz, 4GB memory, ~ 80 GB physical drive, on a fresh, and updated Centos 7 install, running VirtualBox Version 5.1.22 r115126 (Qt5.6.1), extpack installed, 5.1.22 Guest Additions waiting...

Some comments based on your reply:

• file name for the .vdi - I had the disk space so I was trying different virtual disks and different vdi names, some created when the virtual machine was created, some created from the storage settings.
• XFS for the filesystem - the Centos 7 installation defaulted to XFS for the filesystem. I was never presented with the opportunity to format and partition the virtual disk. The underlying filesystem is XFS. The Win7 install should allow me to partition and format the virtual drive, but did not get that far in the installation process. This is another reason I had multiple vdi's - I was attempting to create a virtual disk and have it partitioned and formatted for NTFS.
• amount of memory assigned - yep, my mistake. I had planned on only running VirtualBox with a single guest, and nothing else, on the host. This has been corrected. Thanks! 1024MB now assigned.
• number of CPU's - the same... and corrected. Only a single CPU now assigned.
• DVD vs ISO... my mistake again mixing them up. I had been using the DVD and an image file created using a dd command. Also, it was late and I was tired. I shouldn't do technical stuff when I'm tired...
• not zipping the logs - Thanks for the tip!

I do appreciate your comments and reply!

So here is where I am now - different machine, new install, went with the latest software. I create the Win7 virtual machine, specify a size for the vdi (no partition or formatting is suggested), 1024 MB memory, Win7 DVD in DVD drive, etc. I tried to keep the configuration options to a minimum. I start the machine, the DVD spins up, I can see some activity based on the DVD LED, and the system appears to wander away. The VirtualBox process is consuming CPU resources according to TOP. tail -f VBox.log does not update. I have, in some atempts, 30 minutes or so before killing / powering off the VM.

Attached is a copy of the log. I copied the log prior to killing the VM.

Thanks again for your help!

Win7VBox.log.zip

Win7 VBox.log prior to power off

(12.72 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

[socratis]

Your log is incomplete. Partial logs are not that useful I'm afraid. For future reference, you should completely shut down the VM before grabbing the VBox.log.

I also didn't see any signs of an ISO being attached or a host DVD passthrough.

[geppetto]

This log should be better, start to end of termination.

Win7-all.log.zip

(18.58 KiB) Downloaded 9 times

I let it 'run' for an hour and a half or so, checking TOP from time to time to make sure VirtualBox was still an active and running process.

Thank you.

[socratis]

00:00:02.029029 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#1/] (level 4)
00:00:02.029033   Driver <string>  = "HostDVD" (cb=8)
00:00:02.029034 
00:00:02.029036 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#1/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:02.029039   Passthrough <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)
00:00:02.029041   Path        <string>  = "/dev/sr0" (cb=9)

This is not an ISO file that you're trying to boot from, this is the host's DVD. And I'm still not convinced that this disk is not corrupt, broken or misbehaving.

00:00:02.029724 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000002000000 (33 554 432, 32 MB)

Not vital, but you might want to take that up a notch, like 64, 128 or even 256 MB, if you enable 2D and 3D acceleration. Which you should...